Valley Man Convicted of Killing His Son, 4, in Fire

Duane West did not want to pay child support. His anger led him last summer to kill his 4-year-old son in a fire at the Granada Hills townhouse where the boy lived with his mother, a jury concluded Wednesday after five days of deliberation.

Los Angeles Superior Court jurors convicted West, 30, of first-degree murder in the July 9, 2001, death of Marquise Diantae McDonald, who suffered third-degree burns to 73% of his body.

Also, the seven-woman, five-man panel found the Winnetka resident guilty of child abuse, arson causing bodily injury and first-degree burglary as well as attempted murder and torture of the boy’s mother, Jaquetta “Nicole” Taylor.

“What you have here is a man ... who killed a young boy because he did not want to pay child support,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Mitchell said after the verdict. “Nicole Taylor was asking for a grand sum of $150 a month. [West] had paid in the entire lifetime of Marquise $300.”

West -- a husband and father of two other children -- faces life in prison without parole when Judge Lance Ito sentences him Jan. 24.

The jury deadlocked on the special circumstance allegation that West committed the killing for financial gain. Mitchell, who works in the district attorney’s Family Violence Unit, said he will not retry that portion of the complaint. The jury acquitted West, the son of a Louisiana minister, of a torture count involving his son.

“This was obviously a difficult case from many points of view,” Ito told jurors Wednesday as he thanked them for their service. “This was as serious as cases come.... It was not pleasant.”

Defense attorney Ilona Peltyn had argued her client was “unraveling” over Taylor’s demands for money and had committed the crimes in an act of passionate rage.

During the trial, the boy’s mother tearfully recalled how West had blocked Marquise’s escape from a burning bedroom.

She testified that West -- a friend with whom Taylor said she had a one-night stand -- set her on fire the same night her son was killed by dousing her with nail-polish remover and lighting a match.

Taylor said she is grateful to the jury.

“The fact still remains that Marquise is dead,” she said through tears. “And that’s something I have to live with for the rest of my life.”

The Rev. Samuel West Jr., father of the defendant, told reporters that his family mourns the grandson they never knew.

“It’s not just hurting on one side,” he said. “It’s hurting on both sides.... It’s still hard for me to believe Duane has done something like this.”

As the verdicts were read, the defendant dropped his head into his hands.